Somewhat of an annual occurrence, Michael Jordan has si…

Somewhat of an annual occurrence, Michael Jordan has signed another one of his own draft picks to Jordan Brand. After first round selection Malik Monk somewhat surprisingly landed with Nike Basketball last month, second round pick Dwayne Bacon has confirmed a direct deal with Jordan Brand.

North Carolina forward Luke Maye has announced he will withdraw from the NBA draft. In a message posted on his Instagram account Thursday morning, Maye said that he would be returning to UNC next season. “I have had a great experience learning from the NBA process and growing as a basketball player during the past couple weeks,” Maye wrote. “Through this process, I have decided that I am going to comeback (sic) to school to improve as a player and finish my college career.”

Corporate sponsors spent an estimated $1.12 billion on the NBA this season, fueled by the new sponsorship patches on team jerseys. That figure comes from IEG/ESP, a division of ad agency WPP that tracks sponsor spending and ROI on the major US sports leagues. This is the first time NBA sponsor spend has topped $1 billion. For comparison, it puts the NBA between MLB ($892 million) and the NFL ($1.25 billion) in sponsorship spend. The $1.12 billion is 31% higher than the $861 million in NBA sponsor spend last season, a much bigger increase than was projected. Sponsorship spend in the big four pro leagues typically gets bigger every year, but the NBA spend grew by far more than expected.